1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus useful in the laundering of industrial garments, and more particularly, apparatus for automatically conveying trousers folded on a hanger to and through a steam tunnel to remove the wrinkles from the trousers after they have been washed or to another location for further processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional apparatus and methods for use in transporting trousers in bulk through a steam tunnel to remove wrinkles from the washed trousers have consisted mainly of straightening and manually folding the trousers on a hanger, placing and orienting the hangers one at a time vertically on a conveyor leading to the steam tunnel where they are heated by steam to remove wrinkles. An example of such an apparatus is that sold by Colmac Industries, Inc. of Colville, Wash. The process is time consuming and labor intensive, in that individual trousers must be handled, folded and hung, but once hung vertically, the hangers have a tendency to intertwine or cross as they are fed by the conveyor, causing further down time to space them properly or else creating a jam as they are fed to the steam tunnel.
The apparatus of the present invention cuts the handling time in half.
In accordance with the present invention, the trousers and/or shorts of any width waistband are fed one at a time between conveyor belts, cuff end first, towards a hanger automatically dropped from a hanger bar into a hanger chute positioned in the path of travel of the trousers and/or shorts. A sensor senses the presence of a pair of trousers and/or shorts on the feed belts and activates a hanger transport mechanism which grabs a hanger from the end of a screw conveyor on a hanger bar feeding the hangers by gravity towards the screw end, which stops, separates and spaces the hangers. The hanger transport mechanism delivers a hanger forwardly over the hanger chute, and then retracts, dropping the hanger into chute. The cuff end of the trousers or shorts are fed through the hanger positioned in the chute. A sensor, such as a photoelectric eye, senses the position of the waistband or the opposite end of the trousers and upon sensing the same, causes the activation and forward tilt or rotation of a hanger receiving and holding mechanism mounted at the bottom of the hanger chute, which enables the trousers and/or shorts to be draped over the hanger and the hanger to be delivered to an upright conveyor containing spaced projections for picking up the hanger hook end along with the folded trousers and/or shorts, and transporting the same to the steam tunnel conveyor or other device for further processing. As a consequence, the waistband is always at the same location after the trousers are folded for further processing
The screw conveyor at the end of the hanger bar separates, and rotatable arcuate knives upstream from the conveyor end, spaces the hangers on the conveyor to prevent them from crossing and jamming in the apparatus. The hanger transport mechanism is activated at periodic selected intervals and is positioned adjacent to the hanger bar to grab individual hangers from the end of the screw conveyor and retract to drop the hanger by gravity into the chute.
A further sensor, placed at the feed end of the conveyor belts, automatically senses the cuff end of the trousers and/or shorts and adjusts the width of the entrance to the belts for assuring that the trousers and/or shorts are centered so that the position of the waistband can subsequently be read for activation of the hanger tilt mechanism.